agency paying last friday of the month

**Sockpuppet** · 14 February 2007, 20:33

Every agency is different. My last one paid the Thursday after if you put the invoice in by Monday. Some do every friday.

As long as you know the cut off (i.e. there isnt a submit by the 5th or it is the last friday of the month + 1 then you should be ok.)

**boxman** · 15 February 2007, 06:59

Hi

I had the same situation with my current agency. I have to invoice on the 1st of each month and then paid on about the 20th. Originally this was 20 working days later and for the first two months they were over a week late from that.

A couple of things to consider here I would suggest...

1. Consider the impact on your finances/cash flow of the initial period before you get paid. If you can ride this out then no problem.

2. If the agency is not one of the big boys then run a credit check against them. Costs about £6 from memory and is well worthwhile - and of course tax deductible (assuming you're not using a brolly!).

3. Make sure your invoices indicate your payment terms. For example you could state payment due within 28 days. After 30 days you can apply the late payments legislation and charge interest plus a flat fee for your trouble. In my case this clause actually appears in the contract I have with the agency (their clause rather than something I suggested to them).

Many smaller agencies use invoice factoring to pay contractor invoices but I've detected a switch away from this over the past couple of years to self-funding with later payment terms. If your agency can't pay you and you've worked for almost 2 months before you discover this you're probably talking about a large amount of bad debt potentially. You could of course ask the agency for the name of another current contractor as a reference to check out whether they pay on time...

Good luck

Rob

**tim123** · 15 February 2007, 11:58

Originally posted by boxman

Hi

I had the same situation with my current agency. I have to invoice on the 1st of each month and then paid on about the 20th. Originally this was 20 working days later and for the first two months they were over a week late from that.

A couple of things to consider here I would suggest...

1. Consider the impact on your finances/cash flow of the initial period before you get paid. If you can ride this out then no problem.

Rob

If one does not have enough cash in the bank to cope with being paid 20 days 'late', then one should not be contracting.

If you can't survive waiting 20 days, how are you going to manage when you are between placements?

As a contractor, the one and only reason why the payment delay from the agent is an issue, is the increased risk of non-payment (for any one of a number of reasons).

All the rest is irrelevant.

tim

**boxman** · 15 February 2007, 13:03

All the rest is irrelevant

Agreed. Chasing unpaid invoices is almost worth putting on your CV as a core business skill these days

**TheFaQQer** · 15 February 2007, 13:25

Originally posted by MmarcoM

is that normal for an agency? do all of you get paid last xx day of the month?

can it mean that something can go wrong or is just how some agencies work?

Each EB does their own thing - partly depends on how often they are getting paid by the client.

I've worked with some EBs who pay by the following Thursday, some who I invoiced weekly and they paid on 30 day terms, some who I invoice monthly by a given date and they pay 10 days later.

As long as you can handle the planning / forecasts etc. it's no big deal.

**Not So Wise** · 15 February 2007, 14:10

They all vary on when they pay. My current one basiclly pays up same day they get invoice (unless it is after working hours), invoice can be submitted pretty much whenever after whatever period you agreed with them, weekly, fortnightly, monthly

agency paying last friday of the month